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Saturday, 13 December 2014

COURT ORDERS HOMES DESTROYED

The High Court in Swaziland has ordered the forced eviction of more
residents from their stick-and-mud homes to make way for the building of a
technology park, dubbed a ‘vanity project’ for King Mswati III.

The King, who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s
last absolute monarch, wants to build a Royal Science and Innovation Park/ Biotechnology
Park at Nokwane.

The High Court in Mbabane ordered the eviction of 20 people from their
homes. There were also forced evictions from Nokwane in September 2014 after
residents failed to stop a court order.

In the latest move, residents failed to convince the High Court that
they had any legal right to be on the land.

Judge Mpendulo
Simelane said the ownership of the property was vested in the King in trust for the
Swazi Nation and the King had allocated the land to government through the
Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology for the construction of
the Park.

He also ordered the demolition of ‘all and every illegal structure
erected’ on this farm.

In 2010, Moses Zungu, the Project Manager for the Royal
Science and Innovation Park/ Biotechnology Park, said the first phase of the
project, which would involve basic infrastructure such as roads, drainage,
landscaping and other works, would cost E850 million (US$85 million). He said
the first phase would start in April 2011 – more than three years ago.

No needs analysis for the development has been published, but Zungu said
in 2010 the science park was the initiative of the King.

In July 2011 it was revealed that the Swazi Government had taken out a
US$20 million loan to part-finance the science park. The loan, in the form of a
line of credit, was from the Export-Import Bank of India.

More than seven in ten of King Mswati’s 1.3 million subjects live in
abject poverty with incomes of less than US$2 per day. The kingdom has the
highest rate of HIV infection in the world and earlier this year the Swazi Minister
of Health Sibongile Ndlela-Simelane said there was not enough money to pay for drugs to prevent the
death of children from diarrhoea in the kingdom.